The Reckoning

A veteran novelist and best-selling author, James Byron Huggins' life story reads more like fiction than fact. His career as a writer began normally enough. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism and English Literature from Troy State University and then worked as a reporter for the Hartselle Enquirer in Hartselle, Alabama. Huggins won numerous awards for writing and photography before leaving journalism in 1985.With a desire to help persecuted people in Eastern Europe, Huggins moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to work in conjunction with organizations working in war-torn regions of the world. Huggins helped set up a system used to smuggle information and materials in and out of the Iron Curtain in 1987. Working primarily from the United States, he felt he needed to leave North America and lend more hands-on service, particularly in Romania. As a jack of all trades, Huggins photographed a secret police installation researching the illegal arrests and murders of religious dissidents and continued to orchestrate the smuggling routes used to provide badly needed assistance to the underground. Huggins even found the means of creating and putting into action a code that would allow freer communications between Romanian Christians working for their survival in the West. Needless to say, his life held few creature comforts during this long period. Hunted and often unable to use formal establishments like hotels or hostels, he was sometimes forced to hide in the forests or in protected basements for days at a time.After his time in Romania, Huggins returned to the United States and took up journalism once more. He again worked for a small newspaper and won several awards for writing and editing. Later he became a police officer for the Huntsville Police Department in Huntsville, Alabama. Promoted to Field Training Officer and after distinguished service with the department, he published his first novel, A Wolf Story, to international acclaim. His subsequent novels included The Reckoning, Cain, and Hunter, which were also met with praise and made numerous national bestseller lists. The theatrical rights for Cain and Hunter were subsequently optioned for over one million dollars apiece by Universal and Paramount studios respectively.Huggins is currently working on his tenth novel and lives in North Carolina.